“The demon lover”: A short story

TRUE LIFE EVENT She started. “Rex, I perused your true life story and each time I read it, I end up crying. I connected to your story. Just like you Rex, I was betrayed. I wasn’t just his only victim, I lost the only family I had. Forced into the journey of living alone as an orphan. My late mother warned me. But I was foolishly in love and couldn’t see I was preparing for a double burial ceremony. I’m not good with words, but I trust you can handle my own story for me. I can’t share this on my timeline cos I can’t have my friends read about my ordeal. I feel so ashamed. I suffered for a just course of loving someone the proper way they deserved it. As simple as it sounded, he moved something in my soul. He had me and had the whole of me. You know that feeling when you see someone you love, you feel you’ve seen the rest of your life with them. I loved him in a special way I couldn’t love my own self. I loved him that much, like a child who lost her way home and depended on him to take me back. He took me to hell instead. He capitalized on my weakness and ruined my entire life. I’ve not even started, my eyes are already teary. I wish I saw the end before it started, I might have change it all, somehow. I was only 23, in my final year with my hymen still intact. I never knew any man in a biblical sense(sex). I didn’t even know what a full fledged Unclad man looked like cos I’ve never been in a compromising position with any before. He was 27, a graduate and an entrepreneur. He was successful in his business. He doubted my virginity and will only believe if he made love to me to confirm. I promised I will keep it for him to confirm on our wedding night. Just as any sexually active man, he disagreed. Each time I visited him, he would attempt to forcefully have sex with me. I will fight my way out of his claws. And he will only stop when I cried. He would apologize, pet me and blame it on his raging hormones. And sometimes, he would credit my account just to please me. I forgave him each time cos I loved him like a little school girl loved ice cream. I wanted him like a child wanted his mummy. I needed him like a new born baby needed breast milk. But he fed with me betrayal instead. Six months into the relationship, the demon buried inside his heart flashed like a lightning in the sky. It was my first time of experiencing anything that terrifying. Nobody told me that people who claimed they loved you, something fierce, could turn around and hurt you like you never meant anything to them. I still remember that terrifying night. My birthday night. He pleaded with me to come over to his house to properly celebrate it with me. I got there as early as I can. He was not at home. I had access to his house keys. So I waited for him. He returned around 8 P.M. with lots of gifts. I was so excited that night. I spent the night after he pleaded so much. Who will believe that he could woke up in the middle of the night, tied me up and raped me like animal. The excruciating pains torn me apart. I wasn’t prepared for the surprise sex. Not even the blood could elicit a tiny pity from him. Not even my tears. Not even his conscience. Not even his love for me could remind him he was hurting the woman who would never bear to see him hurt. The woman that would walk the mile to put a smile on his face. Nobody told me life could be this cruel. I don’t know what he took that ungodly night. He dived in and out like a drunken demon thirsty for blood. His eyes flashed with terror. His face was masked by his deadly hunger. He couldn’t see he was punishing me. He couldn’t even see I was crying. I became a total stranger to him that night. I couldn’t even recognize him myself. That night, l’m so sure the devil felt threatened, he had a rival that could dethrone him. He messed up me like a LovePeddler until I passed out. I snapped back at dawn, he laid like a log wood beside me. For the first time I heard him snoring like a train. I was still tied up in mess, dried blood and sperm. I tried to move my legs, I felt pains. That moment, I felt a thin line of warm tears sliding to my ears. My phone rang and he woke up. He untied me, no remorse, no apology. I managed to find my way home and deleted every memory of him. He called a million times and involved almost everyone I knew to plead with me. But I was done and never returned to him. I graduated and served. I couldn’t date anyone due to that experience. And every man I tried to give a chance, hungered to sleep with me. I was scared of men. I can’t bear another such horrifying encounter. Last time had to be the last I would let anyone in. I’ve had no spare heart to love again. Anyway, I got a good job. I took care of my only sister and mother. I saved about 3 million Naira to established a business. I never knew the devil lurked around to finish up his dirty business with my life. I ran into my ex at the shopping mall with my kid sister after 3years. We exchange pleasantries like normal people do. And right there I made the biggest mistake that ruined my life finally, offered myself a prey, the second time to the devil – I gave him my new phone number. I wish I never did. We started slow and good. He was able to convinced me he was a changed man. I can’t explain how he achieved it but he did. I gave him a second chance without sex and he agreed and never made any silly attempt. He proposed. Met my mother. But my mother’s spirit did not really align with him. But I loved him and convinced my mother he was harmless. Although, I never told her what transpired between us in the past. He ran into debts and his business suffered setbacks. I gave him my total savings to bounce back. Helped him with contacts and other resources to boost his business. He bounced back better than before and made so much money he has never made before. He swore to spend the rest of his life with me. I was confident. That was it. That was where my life will start that romantic journey every young girl dream about. He picked up my sister on the way with the intention of bringing her home. He stopped at his place, raped the innocent girl, victimized her with threats and credited her with a large sum to shut her up. She didn’t mentioned it to anyone even when I noticed something was different about her. She concealed it until she fell seriously sick. She lost weight rapidly and was almost looking like a skeleton. The same thing happened to my mother. I ran a test for the two of them, they had AIDS. But I was negative. My world was torn apart. How? When? From where? How did it happen? Answers were not coming. My whole world started crumbling. My kid sister finally confessed my fiance raped her and that could be the only possible way she could’ve contracted the virus. I felt my sanity abandoning me slowly. It was easy for my mother to be affected because they shared almost everything together, even needles and razor blades. I drove down to my fiance’s house with anger and rage. I barged into his apartment and caught him with his medication. He knew he was infected and still raped my sister. I grabbed a flower vase and darted for a strike. He managed to escape the strike, pinned me to the floor and beat the blue daylight out of me. And right there he raped me without a condom. My clothes were torn and I sustained bruises. He dashed into his kitchen and returned with a knife �. I cried out to his hearing. “How could you pay me back this way after all the love I gave you? I love you, I swear I do. But why, why have you decided to ruin my entire life?” He just stared at me vigilantly without a word. The demon has surfaced again. That was the demon I saw that ugly night he raped me like a LovePeddler. I looked at him, and through the hatred that burn in his eyes, I saw the devil celebrating his victory. The devil has won the trophy again and I helped him. My mother and sister were infected. I got infected too. My mother and sister died because they were not diagnosed in time. I was fortunate to start my medications on time. Rex, I do not deserve the things I got. I was just a little school girl who believed in him and offered him my heart unconditionally. I made my heart a home for him to live in. I gave him all the love I had inside, gave him more than I could give. Why do we have to love someone with every truth in our heart and they don’t love us back as much we do? I gave him my heart to keep, he didn’t only break it, he smashed and crushed it. Have you seen a man falling down a high hill, sustaining high degree bruises and finally crashed on thorns at the foot of the hill? That was exactly how I crash-landed. I’m HIV positive now, he didn’t pay me back my money. I lost my entire savings to him. He moved on finally and like a used pad, he tossed me away like I never meant anything to him. I heard he got married, had a kid or two. And me, This is how I ended. My eyeballs are dry cos I’ve cried all the tears my eyes can precipitate. I wasted my active years on a man that never worth it. I wasted my youthfulness on a man that had nothing good to offer me. I threw away the best moments of my life dining with the devil. I abandoned my sense at the door of his deceptive smiles and charms. I ruined my entire life for a demon clothed in human skins. I sacrificed my only family, gambled with their life to satisfied my helpless desire for a wicked soul. Will my late father in the grave ever forgive me for this selfishness? Will he understand that I was just a victim of a man that let me down? I didn’t mean to fall for a man that destroyed the only treasure he left to keep his name alive on earth? I didn’t mean to hurt him this way. Now, I go through my friends’ timelines on Facebook and I can tell they’re doing well. Many are married with kids. What about me? What about my own life? I lived responsibly too and even better than some of them. Don’t I deserve at least half of the life they’re living now? Who’s going to marry a 40 years old woman infected with HIV? I feel suicidal sometimes. But I am all that’s left to keep my family’s memory alive. I’m just a lonely shadow of my former self patiently waiting for death to visit me. I’m prepared to die anytime. There’s nothing left for me in this world. I’ve lived already. I can’t wait to meet my family on the other side. I pray that reality exist. I want to apologize to my dad, my mum and only sister for hurting them.” The end � Thank you for reading. The story seems unbelievable. I couldn’t believe that someone could pass through such horrifying torments. But then, it’s a wicked world we live in. Strange things are happening everyday.